Bolboporites

Bolboporites is an enigmatic echinoderm fossil from the Ordovician of Europe and North America. It was once thought to be an unusual eocrinoid living on the seafloor with the pointed end of the cone down in the sediment, and a single brachiole extending from a hole in the upper surface.^[1] However, a recent re-assessment concluded that it is most likely a spine from an unknown echinoderm, possibly of primitive, non-echinoid echinozoan affinities.^[2] It likely diversified in the Baltic region and then migrated to North America.^[3]

Bolboporites Temporal range: Ordovician
Bolboporites top view (Middle Ordovician, Russia)
Bolboporites side view (Middle Ordovician, Russia)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Echinodermata
Subphylum:	Echinozoa ?
Genus:	Bolboporites Pander 1830

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References

1. Rozhnov, S. V. (1994). "Interpretation of new data on Bolboporites Pander, 1830 (Echinodermata; Ordovician)". In David, B.; Guille, A.; Féral, J.-P.; Roux, M. (eds.). Echinoderms through time. Rotterdam: Balkema. pp. 179–180.
2. Gillet, Emeric; Lefebvre, Bertrand; Gardien, Veronique; Steimetz, Emilie; Durlet, Christophe; Marin, Frederic (October 2019). "Reinterpretation of the enigmatic Ordovician genus Bolboporites (Echinodermata)" (PDF). Zoosymposia. doi:10.11646/zoosymposia.15.1.7.
3. Rozhnov, S. V. (2009). Eocrinoids and paracrinoids of the Baltic Ordovician basin: a biogeographical report. IGCP Meeting, Ordovician palaeogeography and palaeoclimate. Copenhagen. p. 16.